


hideaway

by wibbelkind



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-14
Updated: 2014-12-14
Packaged: 2018-03-01 11:49:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2771924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wibbelkind/pseuds/wibbelkind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His house becomes a hideaway, a safe space. Through Hero's surgery and recovery, through the service they hold for her at the park, through her disagreements with Leo until he finally admits that he's been an ass all along.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hideaway

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cones_McMurphy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cones_McMurphy/gifts).



> So today I finally dug up some fanfiction drabble I started months ago. It’s Beadick fanfiction time again! Obviously at the time I started writing this (when the videos of The Watch mentioning the ambulance came out) things were still a blur and this is very much canon divergence. Hope you can all still enjoy it.

When the unexpected happens, his house becomes a temporary hideaway for her.

Leo calls an ambulance on Sunday night and Bea doesn't get to see Hero again until Tuesday morning. She wants to stay in the waiting room over night, like Leo, but Ben drags her out of there, into his car. She breaks down on the way home.

She can't hear what he's telling his parents, their voices are muffled through the door and she's curled up on his bed with a box of tissues. Finally the door opens and she quickly sits up, wiping away the tears on her cheeks.

“Hello Beatrice, dear.”

Mrs Hobbes sits down on the foot of the bed. Bea barely manages a “Hello”.

“I understand you're living with your cousins right now.”

Bea nods at that.

“And Hero has just been taken to the hospital and you're home alone?”

Bea shrugs her shoulders. She doesn't really know of care what Leo is doing right now.

“Would you like to stay here tonight?”

It takes her a moment to process this and then she looks up with teary eyes. “Yeah.”

  
  


Ben's parents make her sleep in the small guestroom. It's cosy and there isn't much room except for a single bed and a dresser. She sits down and it makes her so homesick to be here, that she just bursts into tears again.

Then there's Ben, with careful knocks on the door and a cup of chamomile tea in his hand. He puts the cup on the dresser and his arms around her, sitting down next to her. She didn't know there were as much tears in a person. She doesn't want to let him go, hides her face in the crook of his neck and falls asleep from exhaustion.

  
  


She doesn't go to school the next day. She has a headache from all the crying and her nose is stuffed. Ben brings her chamomile tea again before he leaves for school and she drinks it this time in careful sips. Then she curls up in the small bed again.

It's less scary and lonely in the morning, there's sun falling in through the window and the house is strangely quiet after everyone's left. Bea puts in her earbuds, turns on some music and falls back asleep.

In her dreams, Hero is dying and Claudio's the murderer. It's close to reality and she wakes up gasping for air.

  
  


When Ben comes home he finds her in his room on his laptop. “Sorry”, she mutters. “Your password was stuck on the pinboard-”

“I'm not that good at remembering things”, Ben retorts. “It's okay, I don't mind.”

He sits down on his desk chair and puts his naked feet up on the bed. “How was school?”, Bea asks, trying to hold up a conversation. He shrugs.

“Same as last week.”

She can only imagine how lonely he must feel, with his two best friends being complete assholes. She's been giving them the silent treatment every since Hero's party and Ben's practically her only friend right now. She's on the fence about Ursula (because of the video she put up) and Meg has just detached herself completely.

“Hey, you want to go to your place and grab some stuff?”, Ben interrupts her thoughts.

“What?”

“Or just go home, I don't know. Although I think my mum would be happy to mother you a few days more-”

“What stuff?”

“You know, toothbrush, clothes...” He waves his hands around to underline his words.

“Oh, yeah, okay.”

  
  


It makes her feel all warm inside to know she's welcome to stay a few more days at the Hobbes' house. Ben drives her to her aunts' place and waits in the kitchen until she has packed a bag. It doesn't take long and she writes a note for Leo, pinning it to the fridge, informing her of her whereabouts. At least she's being responsible, unlike him.

“We have to get some groceries as well”, Ben says as they get back into his car. “It'll just be a short trip.”

“Okay.” These days he constantly surprises her by turning out to be nothing like she expected. Attentive. Supportive. A friend. She would have guessed he was just that kind of kid, sitting around, letting his mum doing all the housework. Instead he knows his way around the supermarket like he does groceries all the time.

“You like pasta?”

“Yeah...”

“Eggplant?”

“Never had pasta with eggplant.”

“You never- Oh my god, you're missing out on life!” He laughs and throws an eggplant into the shopping basket. Then he gets some tomatoes and garlic as well.

  
  


She feels a bit queasy because she still hasn't heard anything from Leo about Hero and she blends out Ben's voice on the way back to his house, staring out of the window. What if Hero doesn't get better? What if the surgery goes wrong? All Bea knows is that her lungs collapsed. She's been googling it, and there's a pretty high rate of recovery, but still...

“Bea?” They've stopped in front of Ben's house.

“Sorry, just thinking.” She opens the door and gets out of the car without looking at him.

  
  


“We're home!”

Ben drops the groceries off in the kitchen and Bea, unsure what to do, sits down at the table, nervously swiping over her phone screen to see if there are any new messages.

Mrs Hobbes waltzes into the room a few seconds later, fastening some earrings on the go. She's wearing a skirt, blouse and blazer, looking rather formal. Bea gets a smile from her but before she can say anything, Ben's already pointing to the bags.

“We got everything for pasta with fried vegetables.”

“Oh, Benedick, dear, your father and I are having that company dinner tonight. I'm so sorry, I forgot to tell you-”

“No, it's fine. I'll just cook for Bea and myself then.” Bea looks up from her phone, hearing her name.

“You're staying for another night then, dear?”, Mrs Hobbes asks.

“If it's no inconvenience”, she answers. “Leo's still at the hospital with Hero and I rather not stay home alone right now.”

“Well, you're welcome as long as you like, dear.”

  
  


When the door finally falls shut behind Ben's parents, there's a sigh of relief from him. She looks at him questioningly. He just shakes his head.

“They can be a little... overly-worried.” He starts to fill a pot with water. “It's kind of annoying really.”

“Well, they're your parents. It's their job.”

“Easy for you to say, you don't have your parents looking after you all the time.”

“Yeah, and look where it got us.” Bea runs a hand through her hair. It's getting messy and she should shower sometime soon.

Ben rummages through the drawers and comes up with a knife and a cutting board. “Okay”, he says. “You're right, I- Guess the grass is always greener on the other side.” He pulls up the eggplant from the shopping back. “You want to help me with cooking?”

“Yeah.”

  
  


He surprises her again by actually cooking something decent. It dawns on her that this might be something he does regularly, the way he handles the frying pan and his self-assured use of herbs and spices.

“Plates in the upper left cupboard”, he says without turning around. If he had he would have caught her staring.

“Okay”, she mutters, setting the table. Ben takes the pan off the stove and carries it over, filling their plates with pasta and fried vegetables.

“Just a sec”, he say, putting the pan back on the stove. He picks some fresh basil from the planter on the windowsill and gets a piece of cheese out of the fridge. Then he grates the cheese over both plates and puts the basil on top.

“Done”, he declares with a confident grin on his face. Bea can't help but smile at that.

“Thanks for cooking”, she says, sitting down in front of one of the plates. Ben takes a seat opposite of her. It feels strangely like a dinner date and it makes her nervous. Her hand shakes when she takes her first bite.

“Are you okay?”, Ben asks. She drops her fork at that, letting out a sigh.

“How can I?”, she replies. “Hero's in hospital, everything's fucked up, my life's a mess-”

“Hey...” He reaches over the table, taking her hand. She tries to hold back the tears but there are too much of them.

  
  


Her phone rings when they clean up the kitchen and she excuses herself, taking a step outside into the garden. Leo's name flashes on the screen and she wants to ignore him so badly but he'll probably have news from Hero, so she answers the call.

“Hey.”

“Hey, where are you?”

“At Ben's, I left a note on the fridge.”

“Oh, okay. Didn't see that.”

“Where are **you**?”

“Back at the hospital. Staying another night.” He sounds tired but she's not in the mood to pity him.

“Did they let you see Hero yet?”

“She's okay. Stable.”

“Can I see her?”

“Visiting hours are over.”

“What are you doing at the hospital then?” She know she sounds a bit angry but that's because she still hasn't forgotten what a misogynistic jerk he's been about Hero until her lungs collapsed.

“I don't know, home doesn't really feel like the place to be right now.”

Bea sighs, because she can't really be angry with him when he sounds that lost. “Go home, Leo”, she says. “Come back tomorrow. Try to get some sleep.”

“What about you?”

She hesitates with her answer. Her mind plays out the scenario. Going back home. Seeing Leo again. Sleeping in that house, when it feels so empty without Hero around. Not that she's been particularly lively the past few days.

“I think I'd rather stay at Ben's for a few days.”

“What's going on, Bea?”

“I need someone supportive right now”, she says. “And that's just not you.” Then she hangs up.

  
  


Ben's in his room on his laptop when she finds him.

“Who was it?”, he asks. She sits down on the sofa, pulling her legs up and throwing them over the armrest.

“Leo.”

“What'd he say?”

“Hero's stable. Leo's going home now. And there might be a chance that he'll come banging up the door here because I refuse to sleep under the same roof as him.”

“Phew.”

“Just a heads up.”

“Thanks for the warning.” Their eyes meet for a second and he smiles at her. Her lips are twitching but she can't pull herself through to a full smile.

  
  


Leo doesn't show up. Bea finally takes that long-needed shower. Ben makes her chamomile tea again. They sit in his room and talk for hours. Harry Potter. Game of Thrones. Doctor Who. Anything to distract them from the current situation.

Somehow they end up watching funny cat-videos on YouTube and then general funny animal-videos and then Ben shows her this montage he's made of pictures of sloths, underlined with him mimicking “My Heart Will Go On” which Bea, in her state of tired and cried-out deliriousness, finds utterly hilarious and makes her roll around on Ben's bed in fits of giggles.

“Why sloths?”

“Why not sloths?”

“Next time you should do flamingoes.”

“That's a brilliant idea!”

“I know! Almost as brilliant as 'Cattack, the Meowsical'!”

“What?”

And then she has to tell him about that time Hero and her filmed a Q&A and got way too carried away with a question about what she wanted to be when she grew old. She pulls out all the puns, like the cat-tastrophe it would be and the Von Cat family she would have and the reasoning for having fifteen cat doors. It sounds not as funny, repeating it back to Benedick, but when she takes a moment to look at him he's grinning from ear to ear.

“That sounds purr-fect.”

They both throw themselves away with laughter.

  
  


His house becomes a hideaway, a safe space. Through Hero's surgery and recovery, through the service they hold for her at the park, through her disagreements with Leo until he finally admits that he's been an ass all along.

She's sleeping back in her own bed and having breakfast at her own place but when it comes down to it she spends the majority of her time in Ben's room, Ben's kitchen, Ben's living room, Ben's garden.

And in the end it's hard for her not to admit, that it's not the place that makes her feel better, it's him. He's her hideaway.


End file.
